Moral philosophy, or the duties of man considered in his individual, social, and domestic capacities. / by George Combe.

  • Combe, George, 1788-1858.
Date:
MDCCCXL
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Moral philosophy, or the duties of man considered in his individual, social, and domestic capacities. / by George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    170/444 (page 148)
    exercise of political power, it is necessary to extend and improve general education. The middle classes of this country have, in their own hands, the power of returning a majority of the House of Commons ; and as the Com- mons hold the strings of the national purse, and, when nearly unanimous, exercise an irresistible influence in the state, it is obvious that those who elect them ought to be educated and rational men. In past ages, government has been conducted too often on short-sighted empirical principles, and rarely on the basis of a sound and comprehensive philosophy of man’s nature and wants : hence the wars undertaken for futile and immoral purposes; hence the heavy taxes which op- press industry and obstruct prosperity; hence, also, the restrictions, protections, and absurd monopolies, which dis- grace the statute book of the nation ;—all which are not only direct evils, but are attended by this secondary disadvantage that they have absorbed the funds, and con- sumed the time and mental energy, which, under a better system, would have been dedicated to the improvement of national and public institutions.—Henceforth the govern- ment of this country must be animated by, and act up to, the general intelligence of the nation; but it will be im- possible for it to advance to any considerable extent be- yond it. Every patriot, therefore, will find in this fact an additional motive to qualify himself for expanding the minds, and directing the steps, of the rising generation, that Britain's glory and happiness may pass, untarnished and unimpaired, to the remotest posterity of virtuous and enlightened men.* The question next arises, What provision in money or * The remarks* in the text apply with still greater force to the United States of America. There, the supreme political power is wielded by the mass of the people. No rational person will maintaiu that one ignorant man is a proper ruler for a great nation ; but addi tions to numbers do not alter the species. Twenty, or a hundred, or